For immediate release: June 8, 2007
Contact: Anne McMillin
Public Relations Specialist
775-682-9254
amcmillin@medicine.nevada.edu
School of Medicine faculty member receives grant for
study of near-lethal suicide attempts
Nevada Department of Health and Human Services bestows $126,185 grant
RENO, Nev.– Barbara Kohlenberg, Ph.D., a professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Nevada School of Medicine, and Marta Elliott, Ph.D., a professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of Nevada, Reno, have been awarded a more than $100,000, two-year grant for studying suicide attempts based on their submission of an epidemiologic-service research proposal titled, “Near-lethal Suicide Attempts: Analysis and Recommendations.”
Kohlenberg and Elliott submitted their research proposal in response to a study request from the Nevada Department of Health and Human Services.
The study, which has been funded through the Trust Fund for Public Health at $126,185, will begin July 1. Elliott is the principal investigator and Kohlenberg will serve as co-principal investigator. Mark Broadhead, M.D. and Melissa Piasecki, M.D., both of the School of Medicine’s psychiatry department, will serve as the study’s co-investigators.
“By interviewing survivors of near-lethal suicide attempts, and by comparing them with people whose attempts were unlikely to be fatal, we hope to learn more about the specific circumstances in which a suicide attempt results in death,” says Kohlenberg.
The grant will fund a study into the causes of suicide among people age 18 and above in Northern Nevada and will constitute research on issues related to public health. The study will ask patients who are being treated after having survived a suicide attempt to tell, in their own words, what led to the attempt. Kohlenberg and Elliott argue that the narrative data will be a critically important supplement to what is already known and will greatly improve upon the ability to predict and prevent suicide.
As the state’s only public medical school, the University of Nevada School of Medicine has been meeting statewide healthcare, educational, and clinical needs since 1969. The School of Medicine encompasses 16 clinical medical education departments, including Family Medicine, Pediatrics, Obstetrics/Gynecology, Internal Medicine, Surgery, and Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, as well as ten nationally-recognized departments within basic science including microbiology and biomedical engineering. As the largest multi-specialty healthcare focus within the state, the School of Medicine employs more than 185 doctors who both teach and practice medicine throughout Nevada. The school’s statewide faculty physician practice group has a combined 25 different medical specialties with seven physician practice offices located in the Reno-Sparks area and five physician offices located in Las Vegas.
The University of Nevada School of Medicine utilizes a best-practice approach to medicine and is committed to addressing the health needs of Nevada now and in the future. For more information, please visit www.medicine.nevada.edu.
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